Anger as lags paid £100m dole in jail

Thousands of lags continued to claim income support after they were banged up

The fact that prisoners are receiving benefits after committing crimes is so ludicrous it beggars belief

Tory MP Philip Davies

Thousands of lags continued to claim income support and housing handouts after they were banged up because bungling officials failed to keep a list of who was in prison.

The scandal has been costing Brit taxpayers £4.65m a year, putting the total over the past two decades close to £100m – despite the Department for Work and Pensions being told about the problem in 1994.

“The fact that prisoners are receiving benefits after committing crimes is so ludicrous it beggars belief,” he said.

“You’d think they’d be the one group of people who wouldn’t be able to rip off the taxpayer in their situation.”

It was not until February that the Ministry of Justice started sending details of new prisoners to the DWP.

Matthew Sinclair, chief executive of the Taxpayers’ Alliance, said: “It’s a damning indictment of our broken welfare system that even those locked up behind bars have been carrying on collecting benefits.”

A DWP spokeswoman described the old system as “a bit clunky”, but denied it relied on new prisoners to admit if they claimed benefits.